I like the volcano idea so much I'm gonna do it regardless if I make the deadline or not.

I shot some footage yesterday. Yes, that's March 3:rd. Yes I know the deadline is March 7:th. A little pressure never hurt anyone. ;)

(And I have my sons birthday to take care of this weekend too. Oops. Oh well. Lets see where we end up ;) )

/Z

MasterZap

03-04-2005, 09:46 AM

Here's the raw footage with a rough edit.

http://www.z4p.com/volcano/volcano-edit.mov

All handheld. Gonna be fun. 3 days. 1 birthday. Clock ticki'n. :)

/Z

aw3d

03-04-2005, 01:52 PM

Thats a good looking footage, hope the time is enough to make a short sequence.

I wish you the best,
Andreas

MasterZap

03-04-2005, 02:54 PM

I won't make the deadline, methinks, but I would just need a semantical clarification... 12 PM that's mid DAY right, not mid NIGHT? (When are y'all gonna learn to use 24 hour time like the rest of the world ;) )

(And if it is midNIGHT, is it the midNIGHT at the start of the day, or the one at the end of the day? ;) )

/Z

RobertoOrtiz

03-04-2005, 02:57 PM

Ok ill make it easy...
When the 7th of march ceases to be on planet earth.

-R

MasterZap

03-04-2005, 03:18 PM

THANKS!

That was the clearest deadline I ever had in my life ;)

/Z

MasterZap

03-04-2005, 07:42 PM

Here's (http://www.z4p.com/volcano/test-1.mov) where we are at so far.... rough...yes... but I have a deadline ;)

/Z

RobertoOrtiz

03-04-2005, 08:26 PM

I am impressed...

Looking forward to more updates.
-R

MasterZap

03-05-2005, 05:28 PM

Well, this (http://www.z4p.com/volcano/test-2.mov) is where we are after a kids birthday... not much... and sorry my widescreen cropping disappearaed... dunno why... :)

/Z

-Vormav-

03-05-2005, 06:01 PM

Hey, nice effects. Good work. Definitely needs some new sound effects though; loud cracking sounds for the breaking ground, and people running and screaming. ;)

MasterZap

03-06-2005, 08:55 AM

Next test (http://www.z4p.com/volcano/test-3.mov)....

This is the following shot.... paricle smoketrails plus the eruption at the horizon...

/Z

MasterZap

03-06-2005, 01:52 PM

Heh

I added a tiny little practical flame element (shot in my fireplace!) and tracked it to the rather CG looking flying debris... whoah... much better.

Look ma! (http://www.z4p.com/volcano/test-4.mov) - an update!

/Z

Pepe99

03-06-2005, 05:14 PM

Hi, It's absolutely great work !! I'm impressed !! I have a question, what program do you use for compositing (smoke and fire especially ;) )

Regards, Pepe.

MasterZap

03-06-2005, 06:36 PM

Well, the particle smoke is from 3DS Max using Blur's "SmokeThis" script as a basis and tweaking it to a completely different color map to get that fiery head an black smoke trail.

The compositing app is AfterEffects... and there is a lot of practical smoke and pyro in there, mostly courtesy of my favorite certifiably mad friend, Bob Forward over at www.detonationfilms.com (http://www.detonationfilms.com) :)

Matchmoving is done in Icarus, but a good 99.5% of the stuff is inside AE. A little help from dvMattePro also for keying the practical pyro footage (which is often shot against the sky as a natural bluescreen)

Some standard AE "particle playground" particles in the lava geyser, some glows and stuff. Nothing fancy.

Nice updates. This one is really coming together well.
One thing kinda stuck out though; the trajectory on one of your flying flaming boulders is very awkward. The first time I watched this, it kinda seemed like a missile. Seems like it should have a higher arc (or being going a lot faster) to be able to go on the path it's on right now. Also, the the path that that flying boulder follows outside doesn't seem to match up the path of it as it crashes through the skylight in the other scene (I'm assuming that that's the same boulder).
I'd also try and paint out the guy at the front right of the inside building, if you get the time. The rest of the people aren't nearly as obtrusive in this update, but that guy just seems way too calm and out of place. ;)

Keep it up. :)

MasterZap

03-07-2005, 07:04 AM

Agree with most of your points, but there is a deadline. Things will be as they are, mostly... the big flying boulder render is a bit too heavy to re-do, but yes, the trajectories are, uhm, somewhat "off". Its... uhm... the peculiar physics of lava, you see ;)

The "extended deadline" however I may not have time to use much (other commitments)... but maybe just maybe I will have time to work in those un-used bus shots then.

Btw, what is funny:

I have a full 3D rock-solid matchmove for that "suprised kid" shot. I had intended to make him watch lava at the end, a nice 3D snake of lava along the street. However, it was too much work to try to paint out the people walking dogs and stuff, so I put it in the beginning instead with only a tiny tiny steam vent... and narratively it works much better (and makes use of the also-suprised-looking dog)... it just doesnt' show of my nice matchmove at all, making it look like a simple 2D track. Oh well :)

Since doing good lava is hard, I went for a more "camera mayhem" style. My rather primitive AfterFX lava geysir (rescued largely by the pracical smoke footage) only works well in bits and pieces and looks kinda crappy over long times tretches, hence an edited style works "better".

All is matchmoved onto live action footage I shot REALLY quickly on March 3:rd with a camera whos battery lasted for approximately 2 minutes (I was actually on my way to the store to buy a new battery for the camera.... so a broken camera battery is the genesis of this :eek: )

Thanks for all other comments.

I won't have time to do more to it, though, I have real work to do en masse... if I had another weekend I might have had time to extend it but....

/Z

L'explorateur

03-08-2005, 10:15 PM

woooh:thumbsup: i really love it, how did you made the crack?

MasterZap

03-10-2005, 11:38 AM

Okay, I am hereby proudly presenting the final final version. I spent an evening and added one more shot to the mix, and remixed the audio. It's now "subwoofer friendly". Or maybe that's "subwoofer unfriently", i.e. make sure your sub is insured before listening :scream:

nicely done. Where did your explosion footage come from? is that artbeats?

MasterZap

03-10-2005, 03:05 PM

I think there is one maybe two artbeats ones in there.

A good 90% is from my good pal Bob Forward over at Detonation Films (http://www.detonationfilms.com/free_stuff.htm).

Their "Blowing Stuff Up" CD's are quite a lot of "bang for the buck"!

(Look, ma, I made a pun! :scream: )

/Z

ZeeverFett

03-10-2005, 05:31 PM

looks good Zap!

advanced interaction

03-10-2005, 07:16 PM

Fantastic job. If this is what you can do in such a short period of time I would love to see what you would have done in the full allotted time. Wow great work and some nice camera matching. Well done!

Gith

03-10-2005, 08:00 PM

Indeed it's great stuff... i like the sounds very much! :) Also great camera match!

L'explorateur

03-10-2005, 11:08 PM

now that's something too masterzap,
this a really nice entry:thumbsup: , i wish you best luck for the vote.

Mrdodobird

03-11-2005, 06:38 AM

Zap! You rock! That was awesome! Like, awesomeness squared, then divided by the inverse of itself!

For the most part, it was totally awesome! I loved the motion tracking (as always) of all the steam, and great job with the breaking window! (Gotta love Shatter :) )

And awesome job with the shadow's on the glass entryway!

The only thing I can really criticize is that some of the explosion footage looks a bit, well... comped on, but I suppose this is understandable given the time constraints. Great job dude!

Mrdodobird
April Shall Rock.

MasterZap

03-11-2005, 07:17 AM

For the most part, it was totally awesome! I loved the motion tracking (as always) of all the steam, and great job with the breaking window! (Gotta love Shatter :) )

Yes, simple old "shatter" can do some remarkable little tricks :)

Of course had I had time I'd built a 3D model of it with real refractive falling glass. This was the quick and dirty "hack" approach....

The only thing I can really criticize is that some of the explosion footage looks a bit, well... comped on, but I suppose this is understandable given the time constraints. Great job dude! Many of the explosions I used are shot by Bob over at Detonation Films against the sky as a natural bluescreen. This gives a nice backlit look to the explosions which is great for aerial combat and stuff, but as soon as you try to "ground" the explosions you have all sorts of troubles w. the light direction looking all wrong.

But, "one taketh what one haveth". Most stock pyro is not shot against any form of screen, and you just have to "add" or "screen" it on, only getting the light, not the smoke. With bobs sky-shot pyro you get all the smoke too.

Also he shot some in a real greenscreen, and my main volcano is actually made up 90% of the one single of Bobs greenscreened explosions, with some particle lava embedded.

April Shall Rock. Totally, dude. :scream: See ya in Baltimore!

-Vormav-

03-11-2005, 10:17 AM

Very nice, zap. A bit of clever editing covered up most of the problems I noticed earlier. I love some of the finishing touches, such as the shatter towards the beginning.
Great entry. :)

MasterZap

03-11-2005, 10:27 AM

now that's something too masterzap,
this a really nice entry:thumbsup: , i wish you best luck for the vote.

Thank you my friend and same to you. Your entry is oozing of style, something perhaps a bit lacking in my entry, which was more going for a kind of documentary "realism" thingmajig...